Taking Chances
by Mrs.NormanReedus
Summary: After a tragic event, the Ride family moves from Texas to California. While there siblings Iggy, Gazzy, and Max meet new people and go through emotional changes in their lives. Will they get a happily ever after? Or will something go terribly wrong?


**A/N Hiya! This is my first ever Maximum Ride story and I'm a little nervous. I've read the books and I know the story line pretty well but its been awhile so please be a little lenient with me Well I hope that you like it! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except maybe the ones you don't recognize; those would be mine ;) Also, I don't like Angel so she will not be in this story ;) **

**Chapter 1**

I was sitting in my room reading a book when I heard yelling and a crash coming from down stairs. I threw open my door and ran downstairs to find my dad, Jeb, hitting my mom that was now on the ground. I don't remember a lot that happened after that other then screaming no. The next thing I remember was waking up in a hospital bed with my brothers Iggy, who's a year older then me at 16, and Gazzy, who's twelve, sleeping in chairs next to my bed.

I tried to speak, but the words that came out were hoarse and unrecognizable but even then Iggy, my brother and my best friend, woke up hearing me even with just that slight whisper.

"Max!" Iggy yelled and ran over to my bed. He sat on it and hugged me, and it was so normal that I started crying.

"What happened to me?" My voice was cracking and Iggy handed me a glass of water.

I watched his face as I waited for his answer. A tear slowly rolled down his cheek. "Gaz and I got home when dad was hitting you on the floor. Mom was laying on the ground and there was so much blood…"

I started freaking out. "Where's mom? Is mom ok?" I started having a panic attack, which turned into a coughing fit. A nurse rushed in and asked if I was ok and I said I was. She glared at Iggy before walking back out.

Iggy grabbed my hand a squeezed it. "She's fine Max. She got out of surgery not to long ago and we already visited her… She said that she's leaving dad and taking us with her. Once you two are both cleared she's putting the house on the market. Then were moving to California… " I must have made a face because Iggy squeezed my hand again. "I know Max, I know…"

* * *

A few weeks later we were moving from Irving, Texas to Long Beach. California. I still had a broken arm, which was making me nervous about starting up at knew school, especially since it was almost the end of the year. We didn't have much time to get use to our new area because the day after arriving and moving in we were starting school. After mom and Gazzy went to bed, Iggy and I went to my room and lay down.

"Are you as nervous as I am?" I asked, my hands under my head, glancing at Iggy.

He looked back at me and sighed. "I don't think I'm as nervous as you, but I'm really nervous. I mean, the years almost over! Its May already! Were going to be lost…"

I grabbed his hand and squeezed it, giving him a smile. "We'll get through it Ig. Together."

* * *

The next day, our mom dropped off Gazzy first. Then she drove Iggy and I to school. "Have a good day my babies." She said as we got out of the car. We stood in front of the school, staring at the students that were scattered around the front of the place. We walked in and found the office to get our schedules. We separated and I went to my first period class, which was biology. I followed the map that I was given and came upon the room. I walked in slowly, all heads turning toward me when the door squeaked.

"Ah, you must be the new student. Maxine Ride, right?" Everyone had been looking at each other but now their eyes went back to me.

"Its actually Maximum, Mr.-" I looked down at my schedule. "Baker, but you can call me Max." He looked back down at his role sheet then back at me.

"Alright Max. Here's your book and this is the notes packet were working on right now. You can take a seat next to Nick- Lissa go back to your seat. You both have detention for a week for inappropriate behavior. Nick raise your hand. Max, you can sit there." I nodded and walked over to the seat, ignoring the glaring slutty red head. I sat down and took out my book and the notes then grabbed a pen out from my bag. I felt someone staring at me and turned my head towards my table partner. He was looking at me with an odd expression and when our eyes met I felt a weird connection that we had. I looked away and tucked my hair behind my ear with my good arm. I looked up at the board and started taking notes, still feeling his eyes on me but choosing to ignore them.

The rest of the period went by fast but as I was walking out the red head girl that Nick was making out with stopped me.

"Don't even think about going after MY Fang!" She hissed at me while glaring. I just looked at her, confused at who Fang was.

"Who's Fang?" I just wanted to make sure I knew who it was that I was suppose to stay away from. She just flipped her hair and made a weird snarling noise.

"Don't you know anything? Fang's real name is Nick. You know, your lab partner? Gosh no wonder blondes are always called stupid." She flipped her hair, hitting me in the face and walked away, grabbing Nick- I mean Fang's butt as she walked by.

I went onto my next few classes and before I knew it, it was lunch. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket as I was putting my books away in my locker. I opened it and saw that it was Iggy, telling me he'd meet me by my locker. When he got there, we walked to the cafeteria together. It was a big room and there were a lot of people in there. Iggy grabbed my arm and pulled me to a table that had a few people sitting at it.

"Hey guys!" Iggy said and smiled at them. "This is my sister Max. She's a freshmen and she's fifteen but she's taking biology this year like a sophomore." I gave a nervous wave a sat down with the rest of the kids. I heard a lot of "hi's" and "nice to meet you's" then there was, "ZOMG! Iggy she is so pretty I love her hair! She's really younger then all of us? What happened to her arm? Does she not like to talk? I bet she's like my brother, Fang. His real name isn't Fang though it's Nick. He doesn't like to talk either. Does she like cheerleading? ZOMG she looks like a cheerleader. Look she has long legs and she's super skinny AND has blondish hair. She should join our cheer team. ZOMG-". A cute guy with blonde spikey hair and pretty blue eyes slapped his hand over her mouth.

"Nudge, cool it. She can't answer all of those questions when you don't shut up. Give her some space." He let go of her mouth and looked at me. He looked me up and down and then smiled. "Hi, I'm Dylan. That was Nudge and Ella is the girl with the brown hair sitting next to your brother. Sam is the guy with the brown hair and yep that's it. Its really nice to meet you, Max." he smiled again which made me stomach do a little flip.

The girl, Nudge, started talking again. "So Max, are you a cheerleader? Because I think you should come with us to cheer practice when your case comes off. You'd probably be really good at it." She smiled at me, her eyes begging me to say yes.

"Ok I guess. You guys will just have to tell me when. I have a doctors appointment today after lunch to see if I'm healed or not." I said, not really to sure on how I felt about being a cheerleader.

Nudge did a weird little cheer. "Yay! Our practice is tomorrow! If you're ok we can take you!"

Yay, Awesome. I thought.

* * *

The next thing I knew I was in the car on the way to Nudge's teams cheer practice. Iggy just had to tell Nudge all about how my arm was healed and I'd be able to go look at her cheer team. Nudge was so excited she said she would take me, but I told her that my mom could drive me there because I might end up being a little late but honestly, I didn't want to ride in a car with her constant chatting for a half hour. Yeah, she drives an half an hour to get to her practice. I'll admit though, I was pretty nervous. She was right when close when she said I looked like a cheerleader though. I took a couple gymnastic classes a few years and the coaches said I was pretty good, but that was like, three years ago.

Anyway, my mom was making Iggy stay with me because Gazzy had baseball practice. He wasn't too happy, but I think he liked Nudge's sister Ella. Maybe she would be at the practice. Then he wouldn't be so grouchy. I was actually happy that I had all of these things going on now; it was making me forget about what happened in Texas. I was really grateful for that.

When we got there, I was really surprised and a little disgusted. Everything was pink. Well all the clothes behind the desk and all of the walls were. It was very bright. I looked through the observing window and saw people stretching. I was surprised that there were guys in there too. Nudge looked towards where I was and yelled "ZOMG!" so loud I could hear her through the glass. She got up and ran to the room. She yanked the door open and grabbed my arm. I turned around long enough to see Iggy sitting down next to Ella.

After we were done stretching some people walked up to me. I was surprised to see Sam and Dylan there but even more surprised to see two very unpleasant faces. Lissa and Brigid, the two sluttiest, rudest, bitchiest people at our school. Lissa was dating Nick or Fang as he was also called. Brigid wasn't "dating" anyone at the moment, just sleeping around. I thought it was pretty sad that I had been there only two days and I knew how bad they were. I was trying to avoid them when they looked at me and gasped.

"What are YOU doing here, bitch?" Lissa said, her nasally voice piercing my ears. Instead of answering, I was pulled away by Nudge and brought to her coach.

"You must be Max! Nudge told me you would be coming today. My name is Coach Kyle and Nudge was right, you do look like a cheerleader. Have you ever done cheer or gymnastics before?" I was a little surprised that the coach was a guy. I had always had female coaches before but it didn't make me uncomfortable in the least.

"Um, yeah I did a couple years of gymnastics a few years ago." I was a little hesitant in answering the truth because I didn't know how he would react knowing I didn't have that much experience.

"Oh great your letting some girl that cant do anything practice with us?" Lissa and Brigid both said it at the same time. I rolled my eyes and Nudge and I got in line for tumbling.

* * *

I was surprised at how much I could still do. I could still do my round off handspring full, which impressed all of the coaches and members. We did some stunting and I based a little but since I was so flexible they wanted me to try and fly. And I did well I guess, that's what the coaches said. After practice, the coaches told me they wanted me to come to the next one. Nudge, Dylan, and I walked out into the observing room talking and laughing, but stopped when we saw Iggy and Ella holding hands and laughing. I was going to have a fun time on this team.

A/N And that's it for this chapter! I think that it was extremely long, I've never written a story that wasn't for school that was that long. I'm sorry if you don't know what some of the cheer things, but I'll try and keep it as simple as possible. Please Review! Constructive criticism is always welcome


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